


echoes in the clouds

by thewayofthetrashcompactor (BriarLily)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Ben Solo Lives, Canon Universe, Established Kylo Ren/Rey, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Kissing in the Rain, Outdoor Sex, Planet Naboo (Star Wars), Post-Canon, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Rain, Smut, Thunder and Lightning, Thunderstorms, they could destroy the galaxy but they love each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:48:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27169550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BriarLily/pseuds/thewayofthetrashcompactor
Summary: The war is over, but the storm rages on.Rey and Ben settle on Naboo after surviving Exegol, two Force-filled people bound up in each other, with only so many places for all that energy to go.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 18
Kudos: 108
Collections: To Rapture the Earth and the Seas: the 2020 Reylo Fanfiction Anthology





	echoes in the clouds

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe we've finished the fifth annual Reylo Fanfiction Anthology. Thank you so much to my fellow mods and all of the wonderful writers we've had over the years. This year especially has been a hell of a year to pull everything together, and you're all amazing. <3

Thunder crashes across the Naboo skies, rolling through the small house below. Rey leans against the windowsill, nose nearly pressed into the glass. Rain pelts down on the other side, streaking across the view of the Lake Country’s rolling hills. Wind races over the tall grass, shadowed green ripples chasing each other like waves on a pond. The house has stood through decades of storms like this, but every so often a strong gust makes the window groan. 

The motor Rey was working on lays abandoned on a table nearby. She was toying with it more than anything, and as the first rumbles of the storm swept in outside, it became increasingly more interesting than the tech. Rey jumps as lightning cuts through the storm-darkened sky. After they escaped together from Exegol, she and Ben hopped from one place to another for a while before settling here, and she’d seen storms on several planets: Ahch-To, Ajan Kloss, Lothal, Kashyyyk, lightning storms in Bespin’s gas clouds, not to mention Jakku’s dust storms. She’s in awe of them every time. 

The storm’s energy runs over her skin, calling to her. She doesn’t resist. Without bothering with shoes or a coat, she runs for the front door and sprints outside.

The rain soaks her immediately. Each heavy drop soaks into her clothes, sticking the light tunic and pants to her body. The braids Ben put in for her that morning keep her hair back from her face even as the rain seeps down to her scalp. The water slides along her skin, gathering in trickles that drip from her face and hands. Cool dirt gives under her feet as she spins, tilting her face up to the downpour with a grin. 

The energy doesn’t leave her once she’s under the open skies. Instead, every drop lands like a charge coursing through her. She dances through the gardens in front of the house, weaving between bushes and clusters of flowers. Their petals gather the rain and leave wet streaks on her legs as she passes. She sways in front of the house, holding her arms out to feel the storm’s pressure against them, then takes off running, the wind howling in her face. 

The tall grass twines around her feet and calves as she dashes across the ground, no destination in mind, just a need to let the storm envelop her. It’s an odd feeling, to run just for the sake of it. Her body is what it is out of necessity, strong because she needed it to be to survive. Running like this, because she can, because she wants to, without something behind her or ahead of her, is still new. Ben tries to teach her, to give her what she wants because she wants it, insisting she deserves it all. He makes her believe it, and she tries to do the same for him. It adds a lightness to her steps, knowing that she has a home to return to, one with a soft bed, stores of enough food for weeks, and someone who cares for her. 

Her legs carry her up, down, and across the open fields, finally slowing to a stop as she tops a steep hill. She looks out over the view as she catches her breath, wiping away some of the water streaming over her face. The storm rages all around her, covering the Lake Country until it feels like another world from the one she’s been living in. Even the air smells different, cool and washed clean. In the distance, she can see her and Ben’s home, almost an afterthought to some of the large estates further away, but perfect for them. It’s all she needs. 

She lets the wind and rain bear her down to the ground, falling back into the grass. The coolness of the dirt seeps into her skin while the rain chills it from above. The thick grass keeps the mud from sinking into her clothes and blocks her view of the valleys around her, leaving only the storm-tossed clouds above. She watches as the wind blows the rain nearly sideways, and the greenery surrounding her brushes over her limbs. She feels each raindrop as they scatter over her body, keeping her skin electrified with sensation. 

She remembers a time on Jakku, when she’d tripped and fallen into the sand near her AT-AT after returning from a long day with an empty bag. She’d wondered if it was worth it to get back up, felt like she could sink into the desert sand and disappear. A sandstorm would come through soon enough, and on Jakku, R’iia’s breath had no mercy. 

She got up and dragged herself into her scavenged home because that was what she did, pushed herself through on the barest scrap of hope. She dreamed then, of a better life with a home and a family, of planets that didn’t feast on the lives of the people who lived there. Her dreams couldn’t live up to this, the living planet all around her, welcoming her.

She doesn’t know if it’s the Force or her imagination, but she swears she can feel the life in every drop of rain. It’s like she could reach out with that core that connects her to Ben and the rest of the galaxy and chase the rain back up to the sky, through the clouds and out into every lightning strike, where the storm’s energy can no longer be contained. When she presses down into the ground, it reaches back to her, threaded through with life from each blade of grass, all the small creatures living under the surface, and the rain sinking in and feeding new growth. 

When her eyes slip closed under the downpour, she can almost see the whole planet, the land rising into mountains and dipping under lakes and oceans, curved to fit the life it holds. A gathering of energy floating out in the midst of the universe, connected by invisible threads and space dust to all those other clusters of living beings scattered across the galaxy. 

A rumbling in the distance draws Rey back to herself and she opens her eyes with a gasp. Thunder rolls overhead, but this sound comes from somewhere much closer and more familiar. The rumble draws closer, climbing up her hill until it stops a short distance from her. She picks her head up from the ground, propping herself up on her elbows. She can just see above the grass to where a tall figure climbs off a speeder and walks over to her. 

Ben walks through the grass and stops next to her feet, his broad body blocking some of the rain from her legs. Water streaks across his coat and pants from his ride, now dripping down as he stands in place. He reaches up and pulls off his helmet, shaking his thick hair out. The rain quickly soaks that too, sticking it to his neck and revealing the ears he tries to keep hidden. She smiles up at him, heart swelling with affection. The tug on their bond tells her how he found her, and she sends a surge of emotion back to him. 

He smiles back at her. “You weren’t at home,” he rumbles. Not exactly a question, but she answers anyway. 

“I couldn’t resist the storm.”

His smile widens. “I know.” 

Rey pats the ground next to her. “Join me?”

He bends down without hesitation, setting his helmet on the ground away from them and folding his long limbs until he lays next to her on the grass. She lets her arms spread and lays her head back against the grass. Ben leans on his side, head resting in his hand, looking down at her. 

“That’s my shirt,” he says, tugging playfully at the black fabric. 

She grins. “You’ll get it back later.”

He laughs and leans in for a soft kiss. “You looked like one of the goddesses from the stories,” he murmurs, reaching a hand out to brush her face, “looking up from the grasses to see who trespassed on your domain.” 

Rey flushes. She never had much use for compliments, a luxury like so many other pretty things, but the way Ben gives them makes her feel powerful, like she could create galaxies and he’d help her, never leaving her side. 

“Does that make you one of the gods?” she teases. “Coming here to find me?” 

He shakes his head, eyes hooded as he looks at the ground. “My hands are too dirty for such an honor. Just a humble supplicant.”

She frowns, sitting up to match his position. She pushes his shoulder until he looks up at her. He’s told her some of the stories he grew up with on the long nights they’ve spent together: about the lives in the stars above Gatalenta, the tree spirits on Kashyyyk, the monsters that haunt the areas out beyond the Outer Rim that smugglers only glimpsed as they escaped. It all feels like part of the same story to her, the Force manifesting across the galaxy, just like it had in the ghosts she heard about that haunted Jakku’s deserts. 

“Gods don’t become gods by keeping their hands clean,” she says. Most of Ben’s stories are filled with creatures that protect the heroes, guardians watching over them. The only ones she recognizes are Han’s tales, where pilots have to rely on themselves to fight the things that lurk in wait in the empty spaces of the galaxy. 

She pushes his shoulder again, more firmly this time, rolling him onto his back in the grass. She climbs over him and rests on his stomach with her knees on either side of him. His hands come to rest on her hips, holding her as naturally as breathing. He barely seems to notice her weight as he stares up at her with that way he has, awe mixed with guilt. She braces herself on his shoulders, leaning over him until she blocks out the storm overhead. Her hair drips around them while his halos his head in the grass. 

“They become gods by taking what they want,” she continues. Her legs lock around his chest, stretched by his width and pressed tight to his warm body.

“Is that so?” His hand strokes down her thigh. “I thought they were named for the gifts they brought to their believers.” He snorts. “Some god I’d make, the death-bringer.” 

Rey shakes her head impatiently. “You’re more than that.” She can tell by the set of his jaw he doesn’t believe her. She struggles for the right words to voice her thoughts. “Back on Jakku, the Teedos believed that the sandstorms were R’iia’s breath . Most of them were terrified of her, but a few almost worshipped her, talked about her like something good and invited them. Everyone else thought they were crazy. I never knew how they could love something so dangerous.” She looks down at him, soft under her touch as he wrestles with what she’s telling him. “I get it now.”

“You deserve better than so much death,” Ben protests quietly. Lightning flashes overhead, a warning they both ignore. Rey’s lips twitch up. 

“It’s not all yours. I never understood being afraid of death like people here are. And I’ve never been afraid of you.” She trails her fingers along where his scar used to be, her healed mark on him. “You’ve always been my hope, Ben.” 

He leans into her touch, water slipping between them. His eyes flutter closed, then he looks up at her through lowered lids. “You were really never afraid of me?” 

She huffs a laugh. “Maybe a little scared, at first. I got over it.” She twines a lock of his wet hair around a finger. “Your hair’s too pretty for you to be really frightening.”

He laughs in turn, a real one, and her heart flutters. His face changes with the motion, losing most of its burdens. “You’re right. I could never hurt you.”

“I know,” she says. “I couldn’t hurt you either.”

“You could,” he says, still smiling but meaning it. Guilt flashes through her at the memory of what she was capable of in her desperation and rage. He squeezes her leg and shakes his head. “I mean, your power, Rey. It’s breathtaking. Your strength is all your own and you could fill entire planets with it.” He takes her hand in his and turns it over, looking at it like even that part of her is miraculous. He presses a kiss to it. “It’s like the living Force overflows from you. You burn, Rey.”

Rey’s emotions nearly choke her. He has a way with words that cuts her to the core every time. She wants more of him, wants to show him how much she feels with nothing between them. His eyes flare dark as they meet hers, and she knows he wants that too, but he still holds himself back from taking it. Even after all these months, he doesn’t push her. 

She wonders if the Jedi have gods. The names in her rescued texts are all models of self-denial and restraint. She’s dealt with too much of the galaxy to have the patience for that, but she thinks Ben might believe in that kind of perfection. She’ll have to take what he wants for him. 

She lets herself fall the rest of the way against him, arms braced on either side of his head as her lips collide into his. She devours him, tasting the rain in the kiss. He opens to her, responding just as eagerly. His hands clutching her back and bunching the soaked shirt she’d stolen from him. Their wet clothes drag against each other, and she decides she’s done with those. 

She pulls away to sit up again, and Ben tries to follow her, lips parted as he pushes up from the ground. She can’t resist another quick kiss before she reaches for the hem of her shirt and pulls it off. 

“Here,” she says as she hands it to him. “Your shirt.” 

“You should keep it,” he tells her. He pushes himself up until his lips can meet hers again. He kisses her deeply, then pulls back to drag his mouth down her jaw. “Scavenger,” he teases. 

She’d protest, but she likes the way he says it, and his mouth nipping at her neck has made it much harder for her to remember how to form words. They’ve had time now to kiss and explore every part of each other, but he always makes her feel like this, alive in new and irresistible ways. His lips linger at the hollow of her throat, sucking there, then he hunches to bring his mouth just above her breast band. His arms wrap around her back and his nimble hands undo the fabric in less time than it would take her. At this point, he probably has more practice. 

He tosses the band away and his lips immediately latch onto her breasts. She never understood the attraction before, but Ben’s touch brings out sensitive spots she didn’t know she had. He mouths across the delicate skin, then drags his teeth along the undersides before sucking a nipple between his lips. His tongue teases the already stiff peak while his hand caresses the other breast. Cool rain drips down her body, a startling contrast to his almost hot touch. She holds him to her, one hand weaving into his drenched hair and the other grabbing his coat. 

She wants to feel him as bare as she is, and she tugs pointedly on the fabric. Ben shows no desire to move away from her chest, humming against her skin. She shivers at the sensation but doesn’t give up her assault on his clothes. It takes some acrobatics to undo his coat and push it off his shoulders while he does his best to distract her with his mouth. He’s not entirely unsuccessful in that endeavor, but she finally manages to shove the coat to the ground, which still leaves his shirt. She pulls on it until she wedges it up under his arms, nearly off, water squeezing out from the fabric.

“Ben,” she groans, tugging again. 

He gives her breast a final nip before pulling back enough to let her drag his shirt off. She tosses it somewhere behind them with some prejudice. Ben’s hands reach for her sides to latch on to her again, but Rey wriggles away and stands instead. Her soaked pants cling to her legs as she pushes them off, but they soon land on the ground, leaving her bare to the storm and Ben. 

She feels even more a part of the tumult around them now with nothing keeping the rain from racing down her body, trailing along the curves of her breasts, joining the wetness slipping down her thighs. Her legs stay spread over Ben’s, and she feels as the wind tears across the hill’s exposed top. A shiver runs down her body, while her nipples tighten and her thighs clench. 

Ben looks up at her, his warm brown eyes greedily drinking her in, his lips still flushed and parted. His awed gaze moves over her, touching her almost as clearly as his hands. He reaches out for her. One large hand curls around her ankle and smooths up her calf. Water slicks away in his wake, coursing over his fingers. His warmth seeps into her, tethering her to the ground. He ghosts over the sensitive hollow at the back of her knee, then kneads the muscle of her thigh. She’s gained some weight in her time with him, no longer living from meal to meal, and she knows he enjoys that proof of her thriving in their life together. His fingers reach inward as his hand climbs up to her hips. He stops to trace patterns in the wetness spilling from her just below where her thighs meet, and she moans, arching into him to try to move his touch up to where she needs it. 

He leans back instead, but doesn’t let go of his grip on her. As he slowly lays down, his long body stretched in the grass, he brings her with him, until he lands with her thighs straddling his head on the ground. His eyes sparkle up at her from between her legs, then he pulls her down that last inch and drags his tongue against her. 

Rey gasps and tosses her head back, energy arcing up her body. Heat blooms between her legs, filling her from the inside out, until she thinks the rain might steam off her skin. Ben licks along the length of her sex, over her folds and up to her clit. His hands wrap around her hips and angle her to meet his mouth so he can delve deeper, his tongue working her open. The tip of it circles around her entrance, lapping up the moisture spilling from her and mixing with the rain coating them both. Rey groans. Her thighs clench along with her core as she aches to feel him deeper, filling her. 

She leans one hand on the ground, tugging at the grass every time Ben’s tongue teases over her. Her other hand slips into his hair and pulls him to her. His lips curve against her sensitive flesh. 

“Ben!” she pleads. 

He doesn’t make her wait. His tongue pushes inside her, and her walls clench on the new intrusion. He pushes back, lapping at her from within. His nose pushes at the top of her sex and she wriggles until it lines up with her clit, giving her the contact she needs. She grinds down. His hands tighten on her, keeping her close as he uses his mouth just how he knows will bring her to the edge. The pleasure builds between her legs, pushing at her skin, like she’ll fly apart into the storm. 

Ben moans into her. The sound pushes her past her breaking point and the orgasm crashes over her, leaving her bent over him and panting. He keeps licking at her, drinking down her wetness until she rolls off him with a groan. She flops back on the grass and lets the rain beat a rhythm into her body. Ben strokes her thigh, kneading the water into her skin. She curves herself around him to give him a kiss. She tastes herself mixed with the storm on him, salt and ozone, and she keeps coming back for more. Their lips barely part before they return again. Ben’s other hand weaves in her hair at the base of the braids he gave her, keeping her where they both want her to be. 

It doesn’t take long before Rey’s slick thighs start to slide together. Tendrils of arousal still slither through her veins, reminding her of the empty ache between her thighs. She’s already gotten used to Ben taking care of her like this. He notices and smoothes his free hand down her back, gliding over her wet skin, until he cups her ass. His fingers dig in and she smirks. He’s shown his appreciation for every part of her, but he has some clear favorites. She shifts one leg forward to brush against his broad chest, and he takes the invitation, slipping his fingers down between her legs to slide through her own wetness. He can’t do much from this angle, even when she arches into his practiced touch, so she pushes herself up from the grass to rise over him, straddling his torso.

Somehow, in all their enthusiasm, Ben’s pants have yet to be removed. Rey grunts in disapproval as her legs touch the soaked fabric, and she wriggles down his body to solve the problem. Ben’s thick erection and the way the wet garment clings to him makes her job more difficult, but Rey has plenty of determination. Ben raises his hips to help her and shoves at the waistband of his pants and basics. Rain pounds down on her back as Rey wrestles the fabric off him, drops sliding down between her legs and nearly distracting her before she frees his cock from his clothing. 

It bobs up in front of her, already dropping with arousal before the storm falls on it too. Ben hisses at the exposure, and Rey can’t resist a long swipe of her tongue over him. He rewards her with a hoarse shout as he arches into her mouth. She grins and sucks the head of him between her lips, his familiar bitter taste filling her mouth with the clean rainwater. Ben groans and his hand reaches down to twine in her braids again.

“Rey, sweetheart,” he pants. She hums around him and he moans. His hand tugs on her braids. “Come here, my goddess, want to fill you up, watch you ride me.”

His pleading strikes a note that resonates between her legs, and with a last hard suck, she lets him fall from her lips. Her hands return to his clothing, and between the two of them, they kick and drag his pants the rest of the way off. Rey immediately returns to his hard length, licking the wetness from him again before climbing up his body to reach his mouth. Their tongues twine, hot and desperate, and Rey’s legs tighten around his now naked body. He rocks up into her, and his thickness pushes at her slick folds. 

Rey pulls her mouth away with a groan, leaving Ben to mouth at her jaw, sucking kisses into the sensitive skin. Her core clenches at his cock teasing along her, and she reaches down to guide him into position. 

She rises to her knees over him, his cock thrusting up between her legs, close enough that she can feel the energy arcing between them. She spreads herself with her other hand as she sinks down. The broad head of him pushes into her, stretching her with his intrusion. She takes him easily and her slick flesh claims him while she slowly lowers herself until their thighs meet. She pauses to enjoy that first moment of fullness, all that hot, hard length pressing against her from the inside, her slick walls wrapped around him. She tightens her core and Ben gasps, his hands flying to clutch at her hips. 

“Rey,” he moans. 

She grins, tossing her head back to the sky. She rises off him a scant amount and her folds cling to him as he draws out of her. Her hands brace herself behind her on his thighs as she slams back down, grinding herself against him. Ben’s fingers dig into her hips, burning points of pressure that she relishes. 

Rain pours down her body as she rides him, dripping from her hair, her face, the peaks of her breasts, slicking over her arms and stomach to pool in the places they meet. The storm has built in strength while they’ve lost themselves in each other, and the clouds churn above them, thunder roaring in a near-continuous torment. Lightning crashes across the sky and paints them in brilliant light for a brief transcendent second.

“Look at you,” Ben murmurs, gaze blazing over her arched form, her breasts thrust towards the sky, the muscles of her abdomen rolling as she rocks on him. One hand skims her stomach to cup a breast and the soft flesh jiggles with her movements. He rolls the nipple between his fingers, tugging on it as she rises and falls over him. Everything is a balance between them, the pull of his hands against the strength of her body, the thrust of his hard flesh into her hungry heat. 

The storm rolls through her as the ache between her legs becomes tighter, more desperate. She balances herself on one hand while the other falls to the swollen nub crowning her sex. Her fingers close around it, circling it as she reaches out through the Force to the other half of her heart, feeling the rising flood inside of him that echoes her own. 

He rumbles an endless flow of praise into the wind whipping around them as they climb to their peak together: _“Beautiful, so strong, feel you around me, yes, that’s it, so close, goddess, Rey, love --”_ The litany sinks into her heart and she can barely breathe through the wave of emotion that follows it. 

“Ben,” she cries out, thighs clenching around him. The sky roars back at her, and she’s ready to fly apart and let it sweep her away, her power threading through the wildness around her and taking control. 

Instead, Ben surges up and claims her lips with his, drinking in the sound of his name from her. They devour each other, as their hands claim every inch of one another’s bodies. Their unleashed energy flows back and forth between them in an endless loop, building until it pushes at the boundaries of their skin. 

“Come for me,” Ben begs, reaching his limits as he swells within her. She grinds down into him, her chest rubbing against his, his arms tight around her. His teeth dig into her shoulder as he struggles to cling to the last of his control.

Release crashes over them as one. She screams his name to the sky and his voice rises in unison, letting nature witness their union. Bodies tighten, muscles strained to their utmost, then let go. 

They fall back to the grass together, still holding each other, Rey nestled on Ben’s chest with his softening erection resting inside her. Thunder rumbles overhead, more distantly now, the bulk of the storm drifting away. The rain falling over them fades from a pounding pressure to droplets dancing over their skin. Rey nudges her face up against Ben’s, and he tilts his down to lay a soft kiss on her forehead. 

“Love you,” he tells her, his chest vibrating under her with the words. She can hear all the things he means with the simple phrase, and she smiles into his neck. 

“Love you,” she echoes and feels his matching smile against her forehead. 

They lay there together, letting the rain wash over them. The clouds lighten, letting stray streaks of afternoon light play over the swaying grass. A breeze winds through the green blades, and she shivers in his hold. His arms tighten around her. 

“Let’s get you home and warmed up,” he suggests, keeping one arm around her as he pushes up from the ground. 

“Home,” she agrees, heart swelling more than she thought possible. 

Reluctantly, they stand, bodies twinging. They have to search for their neglected clothing and pick over the hilltop for the still drenched garments. Rey regards the heap of her clothes in her hands and decides she’d rather risk their neighbors’ odd looks than struggle back into it. She rejoins Ben, who seems to agree. He’s put on his basics but takes the rest of his clothes over to his speeder. He tucks them in with the bags he brought from the market, then takes hers to do the same thing. 

He swings a leg over the speeder and looks back at her. “Riding or driving?”

She considers, then says, “Driving.”

Ben shifts back on the seat obligingly, and she takes the spot in front of him. The worn leather between her legs reminds her of her missing clothes, and her thighs clench, rocking her slightly against the seat. She can feel Ben’s smirk behind her as he wraps his arms around her waist. His warm hands splay across her bare stomach, and the heat of his chest presses tight to her back. 

“You good?” he murmurs. 

She smirks back. “Very.” She’s already considering the ways he can help warm her up once they get home. 

The sun breaks over them, bathing the land between the speeder and home in golden light as she starts the engine. The vehicle they built together purrs under them, and it takes only a nudge to go racing down the hill towards its destination. 

She can’t wait for the next storm. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are very, very appreciated! 
> 
> Make sure to check out the rest of the collection [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/RFFAToRapturetheEarthandtheSeas). We had 63 writers this year who all created amazing works inspired by the forces of nature theme. I've gotten to read some of the fics throughout the anthology already and they're all so good. I'm so excited for everyone to get to read and share them! I can't say enough about all the work all the writers and mods put in. You all genuinely inspire me. 
> 
> You can also find me on [pillowfort as thelastjedi](https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/906830), [tumblr as thewayofthetrashcompactor](https://thewayofthetrashcompactor.tumblr.com/post/632886334441275392/finally-get-to-share-my-fic-for-the-2020), and [twitter as briartrash](https://twitter.com/briartrash/status/1320098629424644097?s=20)


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